"Anak, may lakad tayo sa Thursday ha?"
"Yes ma..."
She would tell me this over and over since Palm Sunday. It was about her plan to go Visita Iglesia to make up for the one she missed last year. Being the more spiritually connected, she had set her mind to go on a pilgrimage. To fulfill her journey, she would need me around.
Searching for a companion, a street navigator, and for someone to push her wheelchair as she moves from one church to another, any mother would pick her son.
As for me, the Visita Iglesia is just an excuse to leave the house and see the city - at a time when everyone travels to the countryside. I would also love to stay home, and spend my remaining rest day docked in my pad. For this reason, I received her invitation lightly. At the back of my head, I would be more pleased to know that she's changing her mind. So complacent I was, even the churches to pick for our destination wasn't even final yet the night before.
"Any church that is far from the main street would do." I thought.
"Ma, dun tayo sa simbahan ng mga mayayaman." I said before going to bed.
We left at past 4 in the afternoon. The matriarch took longer to prepare because of the spiritual talk and recollection she saw on television. "You should watch it," she almost said. Eating little during lunch, plus the warm weather didn't help. Temper was already rising even before we reached our first destination.
At the Most Holy Redeemer Church in Araneta Avenue.
"How do we start?"
"Say your intentions and your prayers." She said.
But my head was too cluttered. I was distracted to really listen to what my heart felt.
"Sana pala dinala ko yung Bible ko..."
"Bakit nga ba hindi?"
"Nawala sa isip ko eh."
"Yung rosary mo, iniwan mo rin ba?"
"Opo." Despite my lack of preparation, it didn't upset her at all.
Eventually, we settled to do the Station of the Cross after buying a booklet from a vendor. That's on top of the Sorrowful mystery we have to pray for each church we visit. The mass was about to start, but I insisted on leaving.
"Doon na lang tayo sa Mount Carmel mag-mass,"
Not knowing that the church holds a single Eucharistic service on a Maundy Thursday, my flawed decision would spoil my mother's original plan for our holy trip.
-tobecontinued-